(Closed) Legal issues with the marriage license?

We’re eloping to Vienna and we’re coming up with all sorts of legal issues. We don’t even care about the marriage being legally recognized in Austria since we’re American, but we’re not sure how to go about it. Would signing a US marriage license in another country void the legality of it?

I really didn’t want to have to get “really” married in the States and then have another ceremony in Vienna since we’re eloping anyway. From what I can tell at least one person has to be Austrian and it’s very expensive to file all that paperwork.

Your marriage must occur within the geographic boundaries of the state issuing your license, otherwise, it’s void.

ETA – If your marriage is legal in the foreign country, you just need to a translated copy of the certificate here to prove marriage (especially for name changes). Foreign marriages are legal here, but the issuing authority of the license first must recognize the legality. (I.e. – I was married in DC but live in Virginia – Virginia recognizes my marriage, but I had to follow all of the DC regulations, which said I had to be married in the boundaries of the District)

@Cory_loves_this_girl: Generally not true, depending on the country. We got legally married in Mexico, with a mexican marriage license & it’s legal and recognized in the US. +abbie017- your marriage must occur within the boundaries of the state issuing the license- you cannot use a CA marriage license to get married in WI, you must have a WI marriage license, same for out of the country.

Alot of people doing destination weddings get married legally in the states at their local recorders office either ahead or after the DW. The reasons for this are that marriages in other countries have different requirements & paperwork (and costs) and it’s generaly easier to do it in the US, then just have a non-legal ceremony for your DW. The only reason we didn’t do that was because Mexico’s requirements were’nt all that different from the US so we just did it fully in Mexico. However, it was more paperwork, more expensive, and we did have to be in Mexico longer than we had originally planned for (3 day waiting period before you can have the ceremony).

Maybe you should look into a coordinator there if you really want to do it legally in Vienna. They can break down all the requirements and costs and paperwork for you…. We would never have bothered to do it ourselves in a different country, our wedding coordinator was awesome & took care of it all once we got our paperwork in.

@Glasgowbound: Oh, thank you! That does lay it out nicely. I’m assuming we’ll probably have to hire someone to take care of the paperwork since it’s unlikely we’ll be taking two trips there just to do paperwork!

@BeckyS0: Thanks! I think we might try to go through with the Austrian marriage license and if that falls through, have a ceremony there and just bring our completed US Marriage license. Really didn’t want to be “married twice” though!

@musician32992: we haven’t made any trips over. We submitted all the paperwork though the mail or through a scanned copy attached to an email. At least in Scotland, the registrar’s office was really helpful and friendly.

@musician32992: ya, if our mexican license didn’t work out we would have went through the with ceremony only and just went to our local recorders office after we got back home. I’d look into hiring a coordinator- it’s well worth the $$ to make sure your paperwork is filled out correctly, you have the proper documents, and if all that is in order you should be legal in the US once you get your Vienna license back…. We didn’t have to go to the country for any of it except the 3 days before our ceremony- we fed-ex’d all our originals to the coordinator…

Plus, if it works out you’ll have an awesomely interesting marriage certificate! Even took my spanish certificate to the DMV & SS for my name change with no issue- the only places that won’t take it are my credit card co.’s but they’ll take my new drivers license so it’s not a biggie.

@musician32992: It is!!! Considerably much easier than planning the whole shebang here in the States- it’s just the license & paperwork that’s more difficult but really, that’s nothing but technicalities in the overall picture!